Toshiba to build Ford's hybrid motors

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Toshiba to build Ford\'s hybrid motors
by Associated Press posted Mar 18, 2004
TOKYO -- Toshiba Corp. will make motors to be used in Ford Motor Co's environmentally friendly hybrid cars, as the Japanese electronics company makes its first full-scale entry into the auto-parts market, officials said Thursday

Toshiba will begin making the hybrid motors in April, said company spokeswoman Junko Furuta. The company has until now made computer chips for cars and liquid crystal displays for car-navigation equipment but not main auto parts such as motors.

Hybrid cars have both a gas engine and an electric motor and can switch between the two to save gas and avoid pollution.

Toshiba will supply the motors to Aisin AW Co., an auto-parts maker in central Japan, which supplies parts mostly to Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's top automaker, and, more recently, Ford.

Aisin AW will add other components to Toshiba's motor, which will then be used in Ford's Escape hybrid sport-utility vehicle planned for later this year, Aisin spokesman Tetsuo Iwamitsu said.

"This is big business for us as our first supplying job for the Ford hybrid," he said.

Toyota and Honda Motor Co. both manufacture hybrid motors. Earlier this month, Toyota and Ford said they had reached a licensing agreement to allow the American automaker to use Toyota's hybrid technology.
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